'Fikry' movie, with 'Big Bang Theory' star Kunal Nayyar, starts filming on Cape Cod

HYANNIS — A combination of Hollywood movie-making, television stars and the New York Times bestseller list came to Main Street over the weekend when filming began on the big-screen version of a global literary success.

Actor Kunal Nayyar, best known as scientist Raj Koothrappali on 12 seasons of CBS comedy mega-hit “The Big Bang Theory,” was seen running through downtown Hyannis on Saturday surrounded by camera crews for the movie “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry.”

Scenes like that could become a familiar sight as the production is expected to be at work in and around the downtown area for a month, according to a Facebook post on Saturday by the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District.

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“Hollywood comes to Hyannis Main Street!” the post trumpeted with a photo of crews and equipment set up outside Hyannis Public Library.

“For the next month you may get a peek at the filming of a movie called, ‘The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry,’ while you’re shopping and dining on Hyannis Main Street,” the post read. “How exciting that our Main Street was chosen and will be up on the big screen. Let’s keep our distance and show respect for a work of art in progress.”

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According to a June story in The Hollywood Reporter, Nayyar — a six-time Screen Actors Guild Award nominee for “Big Bang” — stars as the title character, a cantankerous bookstore owner who is widowed and failing at business, but whose life changes when a child is left at his store and he adopts her.

Also starring in the film, according to multiple industry reports, will be Christina Hendricks, who won two SAG Awards and was nominated for six Emmy Awards as Joan on TV’s “Mad Men” and was most recently seen on “Good Girls”; and Lucy Hale, best known for seven seasons on TV’s “Pretty Little Liars” and whose latest series, “Ragdoll,” debuted earlier this month on AMC+.

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Late last week, Nayyar posted a mention of “A.J. Fikry” and his destination on Instagram. With a photo of himself apparently made on a plane, he wrote “6 am, another plane, another city, another adventure. Spreading love one place at a time. Coming to a cinema near you;) #boston #capecod #ajfikry.”

Hale responded with three hearts to Nayyar’s post, which had generated 345 comments and nearly 52,000 likes as of Sunday morning.

The best-selling 2014 “Fikry” book, which has been translated into 38 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, is largely set in the Island Books shop on the fictional Alice Island off Cape Cod. In the opening sentence, publishing representative Amelia Loman is on a ferry from Hyannis to the island.

Author Gabrielle Zevin, a Harvard University graduate, also wrote the “Fikry” movie’s screenplay, according to industry reports. She has written several other novels and screenplays, and the film rights to her “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” due out in 2022, recently sold to Paramount for $2 million after an auction with more than 25 bidders, according to deadline.com.

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The appearance of Nayyar and the film crews Saturday was the talk of downtown Hyannis, where movie-making activity buzzed around the library and stores. Betsy Young, owner of SoHo Arts, saw Nayyar running down the street and said Saturday she was looking forward to seeing what other scenes will play out in the coming days.

Location scouts began checking out different spots and businesses around Hyannis a few weeks ago, according to Elizabeth Wurfbain, executive director for the Main Street BID, and several store owners were approached about potential filming and possibly using company names. She was told filming would continue into December.

Probable locations, according to BID officials, are the library, the British Beer Company restaurant and the former Rendezvous Cafe space next to Puritan clothing.

Wurfbain said she thinks “Fikry” would be the most filming in the Hyannis area ever done for a feature film.

“I think it’s very exciting,” she said Sunday. Main Street “is very authentic and maybe that’s what they’re looking for.”

Mary Myrick, who handles social media for the Main Street BID, said she thinks the entire independent film is being shot on Cape Cod. Unconfirmed reports from other observers who talked to film crew members mentioned a few other locations around the Mid-Cape, including Parnassus Book Service in Yarmouthport.

BCDF Pictures’ Claude Dal Farra and Brian Keady are producing the “Fikry” movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter story, alongside Zevin, Kelsey Law and director Hans Canosa. BCDF’s Brice Dal Farra and actors Nayyar, Hale and Hendricks are executive producers, it said.

When contacted this weekend, Claude Dal Farra declined to comment to the Times about the movie until after filming is complete.

Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'A.J. Fikry' movie, with 'Big Bang' TV star Kunal Nayyar, in Hyannis